The world started to open back up in summer of 2021 as vaccines became available and countries around the world were comfortable welcoming foreigners to help the suffering tourist industries that so many economies are supported by. Omicron emerged and the world went back into panic. Everyone seemed to close its borders to South Africa. The United Kingdom blocked Switzerland from entering, Switzerland blocked UK and some of its commonwealth countries from entering. Germany, Austria, Thailand, South Korea and other nations enacted lockdown measures again. All of this happening right around the holidays causing a lot of people’s Christmas and New Year plans to spoil. As our trip Switzerland is now closely approaching, I have been closely monitoring what is needed to be done to enter and return home to the United States.
First things first, this blog is specifically about Switzerland and its rules. Each country has its own entrance policies and overall Covid policies. For example, if you’re traveling to a European Union country, France may have a different policy than Germany who has a different policy than Spain and so on. Just because one nation is in the same overall political and economic union as another, doesn’t mean the other individual country doesn’t make its own rules. Be aware and review the country you’re looking to visit to know the most up to date policies. Each nation has its own entrance requirements. Some being as simple as proof of a Covid vaccine, while others may have quarantine requirements. As we turn our focus to Switzerland, they have four important steps needed to complete prior when entering the country. If you’re not traveling to Switzerland but have an upcoming trip, this blog may still resonate with you to give you some idea what to look for. So let’s dive into these pre-departure requirements:
- Pre-departure Survey – Switzerland has a robust yet simple to navigate Travelcheck website that has a specific questionnaire which will tell you if you’re able to enter the country and if so, the steps you need to complete to enter. The survey isn’t a mandatory requirement, but I recommend doing it because it gives the exact requirements needed for your trip. Questions are generic, what country you’re from, vaccination status, additional countries visited within 10 days of arriving and how you’re arriving, and so on. Once completed, you get your requirements. For us, Missy and I, need to pass a Covid test and complete the entry form. Baby Fuller does not require a Covid test since she’s under 2 and I believe all kids under 16 do not need to pass a test to enter. We have straight forward travel, entering Switzerland from the United States and are not crossing borders or catching a connection. If you’re a citizen outside the US, your requirements may differ than ours. Another type of arrival could be catching a connection in Switzerland or you’re looking to cross borders while in Switzerland to another country like France or Germany and return. Each of these examples have different rules and regulations that may impact your travel. There are too many variables to provide every example, but it’s important to be aware of all these types of travels because wherever your upcoming trip is, may have similar requirements.
- Covid test requirements – *UPDATE SINCE BLOG WAS WRITTEN* The Swiss Government has deemed starting January 22, 2022 that all vaccinated/recovered individuals traveling to Switzerland no longer need to provide a negative PCR or Antigen test to enter the country. Proof of vaccine is all that is needed. This is subject to change, so we will keep the original Covid Testing requirements as a reference. The Covid test requirement is simple, you can either provide a PCR test that is negative within 72 hours of boarding or a rapid antigen test that is negative within 24 hours of boarding. You also must provide this at your passport review with proof of vaccination. Unvaccinated travelers are only allowed into Switzerland under specific exemptions. For tourism, I do believe unvaccinated are no longer allowed to enter. Scheduling your test, can be done in advance online at Walgreens or CVS. I would also suggest a local health system. We scheduled ours through our local health system and it was very simple online process through My Chart.
- The Covid Certificate – Switzerland on December 20, 2021 tightened its restrictions and broke Covid statuses into categories. Based on your category approval, that will be the Certificate you’ll receive. The categories are simply 3G, 2G and 2G+. 3G is vaccinated, recovered, or tested and used primarily in situations of large outdoor events of 300+ people. 2G is vaccinated or recovered and typically for indoor facilities like museums, sports events, or restaurants. 2G+ is the strictest requirement where you’re vaccinated/recovered within the last 4 months or vaccinated with a negative test. It’s classified for settings where it may not be possible to wear masks like swimming pools, discos, bars, playing sports and more. Now that you have these classifications, what do I need to do to get my Covid certificate? First, you need proof that you are vaccinated by a vaccine accepted in Switzerland. These include, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Novavax and Pfizer.The next is to have your passport, vaccine card and proof of stay. Proof of stay could be the PDF from an AirBnB, airline confirmation email or hotel reservation. You then take a picture/have a PDF of all three of these things. Next, I would download the Covid Certificate App on your phone. What this does is it provides you a 9 digit code that once your certificate is approved, the QR code will be automatically uploaded to the App. It’s important to do this first, so you have the code when you’re apply. After that’s finished, go to the Covid Certificate site and complete the questionnaire. You’ll get asked basic questions like, where are you staying, arrival date, date of vaccine, which vaccine and confirming your email. You then upload a picture of your passport, vaccine proof and proof of where the staying and the local Canton that you’re staying in will review. Final thing is payment. It’s about 30CHF and you can simply pay with card. If you don’t get asked for payment, you selected the wrong certificate and you’ll get rejected and have to reapply. I by no means made this mistake and reached out to the Swiss Government with questions to be told you selected the wrong option. Once approved they’ll send you the link to your proof where you can have it added to their Covid App for easy display. What we don’t know is if you’re vaccinated outside the 4 months aren’t boosted, do you still qualify for 2G+. You need to present a negative test to enter the country but since you more than likely haven’t completed that test requirement yet due to the expiration date we mentioned above, does the system automatically put all tourists into 2G+ with that negative test requirement. More to come on that and we will provide an update once that’s completed.
- The Swiss Entry Form – For all tourists entering the country, this final step is very important. Whether you are arriving by plane, car, train, boat, or bus, you need to complete the digital entry form. This can be done up to 48 hours prior to arrival.
It may seem a bit overwhelming, but the Swiss government has made it straight forward with easy-to-use sites. All these steps took me less than 10 minutes to complete. The only piece that took a long time was reading and making sure I followed all the necessary steps so I hope this blog either helps you with your travel to Switzerland or helps you look in the right places prior to your next trip. Here’s a quick recap: Take the pre-departure survey so you’re aware of all the necessary steps. Once that’s complete, get your Covid test scheduled as soon as you can within the predefined timeframe. Switzerland is no more than 72 hours prior to departure for a PCR and 24 hours for a rapid antigen. With the amount of testing going on around the country, supplies are low, and lines are long so don’t let this go to the last second. Next complete that Covid Certificate survey. The local Canton that you’re staying in takes about five days to approve these and will make travel within the country much since they use these certificates and potentially not your local vaccine proof, specifically the US vaccine card. Finally, complete the Swiss Entry Form which can be done three days prior to departure. Again, it’s very important to note my review is for Switzerland alone. Each country you may be traveling to will have its own rules and regulations and some could be quite similar to the actions Switzerland takes. Now that we have all the pre-departure pieces completed, we are free to travel throughout the country. Stay tuned as we keep you updated what it’s like to be in Switzerland during Omicron and what steps are needed to return to the US.